I was speaking with a friend who is the Chief Operating Officer of a multi-national chemical processing company a few weeks ago.  We were speaking about the various challenges that he is facing, which are not unlike the challenges faced by many companies.  His most important goal was to maximize profits whilst minimizing inventory –...

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Although continuous and sustained growth is universally pursued by organizations, the goal itself remains elusive for some. Many companies say they aren’t fully confident their company will realize its growth targets, while others yet do succeed in growing annually.  To name some of these, companies like Amazon, Apple, Danaher, Haier, IKEA, Natura, and Starbucks are presented as having...

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There are many jobs that are demanding.  Some are demanding physically, some are demanding emotionally and some are demanding intellectually – often a combination.  Regardless of your profession, almost all of them have one thing in common – when you are done for the day, you are able to set aside your work and enjoy time thinking...

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Over the last twenty years, organizations have adopted many different improvement programs – TQM, Re-engineering, Lean, Six Sigma, etc. Despite working hard to adopt/apply the particular improvement methodology, very few organizations actually experience a true transformation and radically improve their competitive position. The competitive position typically stays the same since competitors also advance by adopting...

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Budget business insanity in government, public and private sectors is said to be the practice of management trying to reduce cost this year while still using last year’s processes. Today, management “cure all(s)” to lagging performance and rising cost of service is to immediately cut staff, reduce service and acquire a new computerized business system....

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I believe it might be safely said without debate that the most important date in the history of Supply Chain and Logistics is April 26th, 1956.  This is the date that the SS Ideal-X set sail from the Port of Newark in New Jersey (USA).  Five days later, when it arrived in the Port of Houston in Texas (USA), marked the beginning of...

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This white paper discusses the importance of business process automation within an asset management firm at all stages of development and how these organizations can measure their current processes versus investor expectations. It is critical that business process maturity and automation evolve over the life of a fund in a disciplined and forward-looking manner as...

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For years, Jason has been an avid exerciser.  Running and weight lifting frequent his routine. With such an active exercise regimen, energizing music is definitely required.  A few years back, those clunky, skip-prone CD walkmans were the newest craze, but they just didn’t cut it for exercise! Finally, the iPod Shuffle came along.  “Wow! All my music on this...

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Stuff…. Wikipedia defines “stuff” as “items, things or matter”. It goes on to say that; “Stuff” can also refer to a particular woolen cloth woven in the United Kingdom and – somewhat disturbingly – “stuffing” is referred to as a “substance” often placed in the cavities of food items. A “substance”?  Like it’s otherwise unidentifiable?  I...

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The directive was clear, “You have a week to find a way to defuse our ‘process bombs.”  This was the challenge put out by the new Vice President at a Fortune 200 company upon inheriting a business process fraught with delays and errors. It is amazing what a sense of urgency and an aggressive deadline will...

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The vice president of leading HMO (Health Maintenance Organization) laments: “We know how to streamline work from point A to point B, but we don’t know how to routinely and rapidly streamline learning from our collective experiences, especially across our disparate functions and  processes.” She is not alone.  Many see that streamlining processes has worked, but...

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People are naturally seduced by a “deal”. We gravitate to signs in stores and on billboards that proclaim, 50% off” or “Buy-one Get-one”. We like to think that we are paying far less for something that we have a right to – that somehow we got the “better” of our opponent. We take a smug...

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Recently, whilst working with the Global Planning Team of a major oil company, we were asked, “What is the cost of complexity and what is the effective range on this cost?”  At one level, the answer is easy; “It is the cost associated with having more than one customer and product.  The more complex the supply chain,...

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From time to time, I enjoy a good read of “the classics”. I am not certain why the classics are not taught in grade-school anymore – it is a shame.  There are so many basic life-lessons that transcend the ages and generations and can be gleaned with grand richness from the tales of literary greats...

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“You need what?!” … “It will take how long?!” I have uttered these two questions more than any others during my move to Frankfurt, Germany.  It seems that everything has involved a considerable process –a rather slow and convoluted process at that.  More often than not, the experience has been frustrating, comical, and largely absurd. ...

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While many of us are thinking about “losing a few pounds”, that is not the focus of this article. It’s about reducing “waste”, not “waist”.  The topic is “Lean” as it applies to efficiency and effectiveness of organizations.  Just as being lean is healthy for people, being Lean is healthy for organizations, including businesses, government, schools and not-for-profit institutions....

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I have refrained from discussing Healthcare in my articles because the topic is so politically polarized.  If I say that I am “for” healthcare reform, I am labeled a “socialist” (or worse) who is against free-markets – and if I say that I am against healthcare reform, then I am a heartless free-market capitalist. I wonder,...

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Small teams in large corporations can ‘out small’ today’s successful smaller players, and win big. Smaller competitors to today’s largest corporations are consistently winning in customer satisfaction ratings without the so-called economies of scale associated with large (frequently out-sourced) customer care centers. For the largest companies in some key sectors – such as telecommunications, technology, andfinancial services – there is the potential...

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INTRODUCTION Most organizations receive and send documents in order to communicate with their internal and external customers. In this context, documents can be any and all pieces of formal information sent through any media. It can be traditional paper, email, SMS messages, or an XML file. All these types of documents are created within a...

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The New Nomadism Apr 10th 2008, From The Economist print edition At the Nomad Café in Oakland, California, Tia Katrina Canlas, a law student at the nearby university in Berkeley, places her double Americano next to her mobile phone and iPod, opens her MacBook laptop computer and logs on to the café’s wireless internet connection to study for her...

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A flowchart is an outline or schematic drawing of the process your team is trying to measure or improve. It can also be a picture of an ideal process that you would like to use. Process mapping with flowcharts can help people: Agree on the steps of a process and the order in which they occur See...

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“First comes thought; then organization of that thought into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination.” Napoleon Hill Almost all of us have experienced a “ Eureka Moment ” – a moment in our lives where we have had a great thought...

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